The voices of “common people”

The history of the uncelebrated

Abstract

In 1984, Saverio Tutino, a famous journalist, decide to found an archive in Pieve Santo Stefano, a small Tuscan town, aimed at collecting, preserving and cataloguing writing by the “common people” in order to prevent the loss of a unique documentary heritage. The project has received an overwhelmingly positive response: the collection has continued to grow and now holds over 9,000 first-person testimonies submitted by the authors or their families and friends. These diaries, memoirs and letters cover a wide range of historical and thematic topics, forming a genuine national monument to memory. In recent years, the archive has launched initiatives that are increasingly defining its mission. It has established a fruitful relationship with the academic world, offering research programmes and important projects designed to position the diaries within the new scientific debate that has emerged in various disciplines. In addition, the archive promotes editorial activities targeting not only scholars, but also a wider audience. Furthermore, it has digitised manuscripts, opened portals and sites and created the Small Museum of the Diary as well as carrying out conservation and computerised filing.